Which state has jurisdiction over my child’s custody case?

What the law says

Family Code section 3402(g) defines “home state” as “the state in which a child lived with a parent or a person acting as a parent for at least six consecutive months immediately before the commencement of a child custody proceeding. In the case of a child less than six months of age, the term means the state in which the child lived from birth with any of the persons mentioned.” A temporary absence counts toward that period.

Section 3421(a)(1) gives California jurisdiction to make an initial custody order if “This state is the home state of the child on the date of the commencement of the proceeding, or was the home state of the child within six months before the commencement of the proceeding and the child is absent from this state but a parent or person acting as a parent continues to live in this state.” Other grounds apply only if no state qualifies as home state or the home state declines. Under section 3421(c), the physical presence of a party or the child is “not necessary or sufficient” to make a custody order.

Under section 3422(a), except as section 3424 provides, a California court that made a custody order has exclusive, continuing jurisdiction until either a California court determines that neither the child, nor the child and one parent, nor the child and a person acting as a parent have a significant connection with California and that substantial evidence about the child is no longer available here, or a court of California or another state determines that the child, the child’s parents, and any person acting as a parent do not presently live here. Section 3424(a) allows temporary emergency jurisdiction “if the child is present in this state and the child has been abandoned or it is necessary in an emergency to protect the child because the child, or a sibling or parent of the child, is subjected to, or threatened with, mistreatment or abuse,” among other grounds.

• Family Code section 3402 (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov)
• Family Code section 3421 (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov)
• Family Code section 3422 (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov)
• Family Code section 3424 (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov)

What to do next

The UCCJEA declaration (form FL-105/GC-120), a mandatory Judicial Council form, asks where the child has lived for the past five years and about other custody cases. If a custody case was already filed in another state that has jurisdiction substantially in conformity with the UCCJEA, section 3426(a) bars a California court from going ahead unless the other state’s court ended or stayed that case because California is a more convenient forum, except in an emergency under section 3424.

• Form FL-105, Declaration Under Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), Rev. January 1, 2025 (PDF)
• Family Code section 3426 (leginfo.legislature.ca.gov)
• How do I file for custody in California if there’s no court case yet?
• Can I move out of state with my child without a custody order?